When a conventional transaction card is used at a transaction terminal to make a purchase, the terminal reads information, for example, card number, expiration date, security code, etc. embedded in a chip or magnetic strip on the card. Other information, for example, the remaining limit on the card, can be retrieved via a network connection, in order to accept or decline a transaction amount. There are some companies, like Swyp®, Stratos® and Plastc® that offer a type of transaction card known as a “smart” card. A smart card is capable of embedding information from more than one transaction card account on a single card. A potential advantage of a smart card is that if a user has more than one account, the user could carry a single smart card with embedded information from all of the accounts owned by the user, rather than carry multiple transaction cards. More information on smart cards can be found in, for example, an article written by David Pierce on May 5, 2015 entitled “My Weekend Confusing People With a Futuristic Credit Card” published in WIRED magazine and an article written by Sharon Profis on May 25, 2015 entitled “Smart credit cards are coming. Here's what you need to know,” published in CNET.
Conventional transaction cards and smart cards have information of the card and an owner's card account embedded on the cards, but these cards are not capable of, for example, displaying information pertaining to an owner of the cards. In particular, these cards are not capable of creating a synchronized experience by generating a simultaneous display across cards owned by a plurality of users or an audible personal experience for a single user of the cards. For example, multiple owners of cards used to purchase tickets for an event cannot simultaneously be recipients of a visual, audial, haptic, olfactory, etc. experience generated by the cards during the event by, for example, having their cards simultaneously light up 3 seconds after a touchdown for a duration of 10 seconds during a football game, or at the start of a rock concert, or at the stroke of midnight on December 31 at Times Square. These experiences can be, for example, an advertising initiative created by an issuer of the card to demonstrate its member strength or an individualized experience, for example emitting “woo hoo” sounds from a card when an owner uses the card for the 100th time to purchase gas at a particular gas station. Such experiences cannot be accomplished with conventional transaction or smart cards.